Film Forum

12:30   2:30   4:40   7:00   9:10

Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a vast, chaotic mega-city of 12 million. Water is privatized and the electric grid is capricious. Here, street artists’ performances are wildly creative, angry, irreverent, often shocking. With names like Kongo Astronaut, Strombo, and Kill Bill, they masterfully repurpose urban detritus (computer parts, TV sets, bullet shells, machetes) and work with fire and paint, wax and blood — to critique government corruption, Western exploitation (their nation was literally once the private property of Belgium’s King Léopold II), and entrenched poverty. SYSTEM K reveals a vibrant, raw, politically astute world of performance art the likes of which exist nowhere else on earth.

Presented with support from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation Fund and from the Richard Brick, Geri Ashur, and Sara Bershtel Fund for Social Justice Documentaries.

FRANCE    2019    95 MINS.    IN FRENCH AND LINGALA WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES    ARTIFICATION

Reviews

“A fascinating portrait of modern Kinshasa that doubles as a meditation on the political purpose of art. A direct testament to the power of resistance through imagination, it soars thanks to the immense creativity and spectacle of the work on offer… Kinshasa [is] a city bursting with vitality [whose] diversity is staggering, making it a global hub for African art… The art in SYSTEM K is vital and provocative, bleeding with personal experience.”
– Redmond Bacon, The Cultured Vulture (UK)

“CRITIC’S PICK. A lively, cogent, unsettling documentary about the incredible art world roiling in Kinshasa… [Filmmaker Renaud] Barret makes the viewer understand, implicitly at least, the desperation of these creators, even as views of their work, and the simmering electronic Afro-funk of the soundtrack, make a case for the indomitability of their creative spirit.”
– Glenn Kenny, The New York Times

“This eye-opening and eye-popping exposé tracks an emerging wave of Congolese creators whose vibrant, sometimes disturbing works are far more provocative than the kind of street art that now fetches millions at Christie’s or Sotheby’s. Immersive. Compelling. A full-blown nosedive into a unique moment of collective creation. [With] a lively score that includes music from… the group known as Kokoko!, whose instruments are made of used paint cans, scraps of wood, transistor radios, wire, and other detritus that’s been refurbished to produce beautiful sounds.”
– Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter