Chesterfield resident Niyi Coker’s film “Pennies for the Boatman” took center stage at the Madrid International Film Festival by beating out the competition and taking home the prize for best film script.

The film was subsequently picked up by a distributor, since the festival showing and award.

“We could not have won without the wisdom and contribution of many facets of the University of Missouri–St. Louis community,” said Coker, the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of African/African American Studies at UMSL.

He teaches theater.

“Pennies for the Boatman” was set and shot in St. Louis. 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.”

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