Abstract
Patricia Franquesa’s (2024) documentary, My Sextortion Diary, employs low-fidelity digital aesthetics and intimate self-representation to expose the gendered violence of sextortion while offering critical pedagogical value for discussions of digital vulnerability, surveillance, and online exploitation. Through its unconventional narrative structure, we learn that Patricia has her laptop stolen while in a café with a friend. Shortly after realizing this, she reports it to the police. Months later, she begins receiving encrypted emails demanding payment, threatening that if she refuses, her photos will be sent to her contact list. The film, composed largely of text messages, screen recordings, and fragmented audiovisual elements, challenges traditional documentary storytelling structures and instead immerses viewers in the lived experience of Patricia, the filmmaker, experiencing digital extortion. The aesthetics and narrative structure ultimately reinforces the film’s central claim that sextortion is a pervasive and evolving form of gender-based violence embedded within contemporary digital life that can be understood through addressing the social and political consequences of emerging technologies.
Recommended Citation
Stojanov, Amanda M.
(2026)
"Documentary Review: My Sextortion Diary,"
Feminist Pedagogy: Vol. 7:
Iss.
3, Article 10.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/feministpedagogy/vol7/iss3/10