‘Too Much Music’ Is a Doc Project About Ghanaian Keyboardist Kiki Gyan – and About Who Controls Artists’ Narratives

Music is a blessing, but maybe it can also be a curse – especially if you are a famous musician who gets remembered mostly for drugs and other negative narratives. Too Much Music , one of the works-in-progress showcased at the 2026 edition of Open Doors , the Locarno Film Festival ‘s co-production platform and talent development program for filmmakers from equity-seeking communities and regions where artistic expression is at risk, wants to explore all these issues.

It comes from director Aseye Fiagbe (short The Gentleman , episode 7 of Bad Mama ) and puts a spotlight on a famous keyboardist from Ghana, Kiki Gyan. Related Stories Locarno Open Doors Spotlight 2026 'I Live in V.I.,' a Social Class Satire From Nigeria, Will Dive Into Urban Alienation and Gentrification Business Europe's Broadcasters Want to Get Bigger. The Hard Part Is How

The director is also the producer of the doc via her Aseye Fiagbe Creative Studio in Ghana. She presented the project during the second edition of Open Doors with a focus on films from Africa and won one of three Open Doors Grants .

THR has compiled highlights about the movie and insight from Fiagbe about the project and the themes it explores.

Synopsis Too Much Music is a feature documentary about Kiki Gyan, a Ghanaian keyboard prodigy who rose to international fame as a teenager with Afro-rock pioneers Osibisa. As his musical contributions expanded without recognition, tensions around credit and ownership led him to leave the band and pursue a solo career across London, Lagos and New York, shaping African disco and funk in the process.

Over time, the same system that profited from his brilliance proved indifferent to his vulnerability, and his life became reduced to a singular narrative of addiction and demise. Through archival material and testimonies from family and collaborators, the film reconstructs the forces that shaped his journey and asks how artists are remembered, who controls their stories, and what is lost when brilliance is reframed as failure.

Director’s note Music is a blessing, and Kiki Gyan had that gift in abundance. His music is joyful, infectious, technically brilliant, and yet his life story often overshadows the work itself. Many people know how he died long before they encounter the music he made. That imbalance is what pulled me into this film. I grew up with Osibisa as the soundtrack of Sunday afternoons in my home. Years later, I discovered Kiki’s solo work and realized how much of his brilliance had been hidden behind a simplified story of addiction and death. Too Much Music is not about rescuing him or forcing his life into a neat redemption arc. I am interested in complexity: holding brilliance, failure, joy, exploitation, vulnerability, and legacy in the same frame. As a Ghanaian filmmaker, I see this film as part of a larger responsibility to document our cultural history with care. Kiki’s story is about memory and erasure, about who gets remembered for their work and who is remembered only for how they fell.