Conventional wisdom holds that new movie releases of January are dogs. That’s arguably true everywhere. Except in New York art houses. For instance, this week Film Forum unveils “System K,” a lively, cogent, unsettling documentary about the incredible art world roiling in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The director, Renaud Barret, situates his film in the here and now that presents itself to his camera — the movie doesn’t delve into the root causes of the poverty and oppression that make the country a pressure cooker. Instead, he follows the artists who have no choice but to live in it. “Our work feeds on chaos,” says Freddy Tsimba, a sculptor who assembles his work out of bottle caps, trash, machetes, and pretty much everything and anything he can amass in large quantities.