{"id":5386,"date":"2026-08-16T07:05:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5386"},"modified":"2026-08-16T07:05:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:05:28","slug":"too-much-music-is-a-doc-project-about-ghanaian-keyboardist-kiki-gyan-and-about-who-controls-artists-narratives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5386","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Too Much Music\u2019 Is a Doc Project About Ghanaian Keyboardist Kiki Gyan \u2013 and About Who Controls Artists\u2019 Narratives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tMusic is a blessing, but maybe it can also be a curse \u2013 especially if you are a famous musician who gets remembered mostly for drugs and other negative narratives. Too Much Music<\/em>, one of the works-in-progress showcased at the 2026 edition of\u00a0Open Doors, the\u00a0Locarno Film Festival\u2018s 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.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIt comes from director\u00a0Aseye Fiagbe (short The Gentleman<\/em>, episode 7 of Bad Mama<\/em>) and puts a spotlight on a famous keyboardist from Ghana, Kiki Gyan. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe 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\u00a0Open Doors\u00a0with a focus on films from Africa and won one of three Open Doors Grants. <\/p>\n

\nTHR<\/em>\u00a0has compiled highlights about the movie and insight from Fiagbe about\u00a0the project\u00a0and the themes it explores.<\/p>\n

\nSynopsis<\/strong>
Too Much Music<\/em>\u00a0is 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. <\/p>\n

\n\tOver 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.<\/p>\n

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\nDirector\u2019s note
<\/strong>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\u2019s solo work and realized how much of his brilliance had been hidden behind a simplified story of addiction and death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Too Much Music<\/em>\u00a0is 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\u2019s story is about memory and erasure, about who gets remembered for their work and who is remembered only for how they fell.<\/p>\n

What was the inspiration for you to want to make this film?<\/strong>
I grew up with Osibisa as part of the soundtrack of life in Ghana, but the story I knew about Kiki Gyan was basically the story of how he died. He was a brilliant\u00a0prodigy\u00a0who became addicted to drugs, lost everything and died in a church bathroom. That was the story. <\/p>\n

Then, as an adult, I started discovering how much music he had actually made and how\u00a0little\u00a0of it I knew. I realized\u00a0that, like many other\u00a0Ghanaians,\u00a0I knew the ending of his life before I really knew the work. That bothered me, and the more I researched him, the more complicated, colorful and human the story became.<\/p>\n

\nHow universal are the themes of the film, and why should people outside Mozambique see it?<\/strong>
For me, the film is ultimately about memory and who gets reduced to what. We do this all the time. A whole person can become one mistake, one tragedy, one headline. Kiki\u2019s story happens within a very particular Ghanaian and African music history, but the questions underneath it feel universal. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhat happens when talent arrives before someone is ready for everything that comes with it? Who gets credit for creative work? How do we treat people when they fall from the pedestal we put them on? And who gets to decide what remains of someone after they are gone?\u00a0I don\u2019t think you need to know Kiki Gyan or Osibisa to recognize those questions.<\/p>\n

\nWhat is the next step for you and your collaborators after Open Doors?<\/strong>
Open Doors gave the project a real push forward, through the conversations we had, the connections forged\u00a0and the award, which gives us\u00a0so much\u00a0room to continue the development work. The writing and research are still ongoing, particularly around London, Lagos and the U.S., and we are continuing our archival research while building the international production structure around the film. A big focus now is following up with the producers, financiers and other partners I met in Locarno and finding the right co-production relationships. We came to Locarno with a Ghanaian film looking for the right international collaborators. I left feeling much clearer about what those relationships should actually look like.<\/p>\n

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