“Pennies for the Boatman,” a film directed by Niyi Coker, the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of African/African-American Studies at UMSL, and filmed on location in north St. Louis has received four nominations in the Madrid International Film Festival. (Photo still from "Pennies for the Boatman")

A film set, shot and first screened in St. Louis is now earning international recognition. “Pennies for the Boatman,” by University of Missouri–St. Louis scholar Niyi Coker, has been nominated for four awards at the Madrid International Film Festival in Spain.

The film is nominated in the following categories: best film of the festival, best director, best film script and best feature film. The winners will be announced in June.

“Pennies for the Boatman” is a dramatic film set in north St. Louis during the summer of 1958. It’s about the stormy relationship between two sisters. The movie is an adaptation of St. Louis playwright Mario Farwell’s “The Seamstress of St. Francis Street.

Coker is the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of African/African-American Studies at UMSL. His directing credits include “Black Studies USA” and “The Black 14,” as well as more than 50 major stage productions.