My Sextortion Diary

Patricia Franquesa / Spain / 2024 / 64 min
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  • Cinema Jove Int'l Film Festival

    Youth Jury Award

  • Gaudí® Awards

    Best Documentary Film

  • SXSW - South By Southwest

  • IDFA - Int'l Documentary Film Festival

  • Hot Docs Toronto Documentary Film Festival

  • Seattle Int'l Film Festival

  • Sheffield Documentary Festival

  • Docs Barcelona Festival

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Spanish and Catalan with English subtitles

With Patricia Franquesa

Why will your students love this movie? Because it feels like a first of its kind—a humorous autobiographical account of the state of online privacy, or rather, the lack of it. This is a subject that deserves deeper exploration, and this dynamic documentary plays out like a cat-and-mouse game, with the filmmaker becoming entangled in the mechanisms of cybercrime.

Trapped in a digital blackmail labyrinth after her computer is stolen, director Pati Franquesa documents the real-time persecution to maintain bodily autonomy and survive.

After receiving a chilling threat from an anonymous hacker demanding $2,400 to stop the mass distribution of her intimate photos, Pati’s world crumbles and she turns to the authorities for help—only to find them powerless to act. As the hacker begins leaking her private images, Pati realizes she must take matters into her own hands.

Through text messages, emails, and self-recorded videos, My Sextortion Diary reveals a gripping, first-hand account of online blackmail that has become disturbingly commonplace. Combining elements of thriller and mystery, Pati’s journey transcends helplessness as she fights back with honesty, humor, and resilience, crafting a powerful story of bodily autonomy, dignity, and the global fight against digital exploitation.

Sextortion, or webcam blackmail continues to be the most reported issue, followed by intimate images being shared. FBI’s security researchers have detected a 178% increase in sextortion cases between 2022 and 2023, marking the category out as a top email threat.

Press

“My Sextortion Diary may only be just over an hour in length, but it is a powerful and provocative real-life story, prescient in reflecting the unhappy reality facing those people who are forced to deal with the awful behaviour of unscrupulous hackers, and handled in moving matter-of-fact style by Spanish filmmaker Patricia Franquesa as she recounts the terrible ordeal she had to suffer.” – Mark Adams, Business Doc Europe

“My Sextortion Diary flies at a blissful hour and change, a runtime that is paced with an expertly balanced push-and-pull of suspenseful intrigue and meditative slice-of-life. Every progression in Franquesa’s relationship with and investigation of her hacker grabs your throat and doesn’t let up. The hacker even becomes its own bizarrely fascinating character. Part of this is in the way Franquesa portrays them: with a robotic, two-toned voiceover edited to close-ups on each word of each email, injecting the film with a crafty but troubling energy...It feels like a first of its kind, an autobiographical account on the state of online privacy, or lack thereof, using the very tools in which that privacy is often unwound.” – Larry Fried, POV

“My Sextortion Diary tells a significant and compelling story. It’s one that we should all be aware of since the prevalence of these crimes are increasing. It also shows Pati demonstrating a great deal of vulnerability and bravery as she takes back power and autonomy from those blackmailing her. It’s truly admirable.” – Hillary Butler, In the Seats

“This is a subject that deserves to be explored in greater detail, and this film is a fitting and accessible introduction to the topic that looks at it on a very specific level.” – Abe Friedtanzer, Cinema Daily US

About the Director
Patricia Franquesa holds a bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication from Ramón Llull University Barcelona and a master’s degree in Creative Documentary from Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. She launched her career in Tel Aviv. There, she collaborated with Heymann Brothers Films and Hilla Medalia, contributing to projects like Censored Voices (2015, Sundance) and The Oslo Diaries (2019, HBO) alongside Daniel Sivan & Mor Loushy. After sharpening her skills, Patricia returned to her native Barcelona to co-found Gadea Films.

Under this banner, she produced La Mami (2019, IDFA Feature Length Competition), a documentary by Laura Herrero Garvín in coproduction with Mexico. Patricia made her directorial debut with Oh Dear Sara (2021), a documentary that profiles Sara Bahai, Afghanistan’s pioneering female taxi driver. This project, a co-production between Spain, Norway, and Serbia, premiered at festivals like DocLisboa, Beldocs, and Docs Barcelona. It garnered awards at the Iran International Film Festival and the Evolution Mallorca Film Fest, enjoying commercial distribution across over 60 Spanish cinemas.

Notes on Film

“My Sextortion Diary became my liberation from the harassment I was suffering from. For as long as I can remember, I’ve used dissociation to flee from painful realities, sheltering in my inner world. There, I could draw, paint, and craft the reality I wished for. The day following the blackmail, I turned to my sanctuary—my computer and the internet—searching for answers. I was lost, scouring news, articles, and statistics, and realizing I was one of the countless global cases. These discoveries made me understand the urgency and global scale of this matter. It was clear: this had to become a documentary.

A friend remarked during the sextortion “You’re facing this because you can handle it.” As a documentary filmmaker, I saw an opportunity to use this nightmare to raise awareness and break the silence that shame and embarrassment drown you in. Nobody wants to be the one who has screwed up, making it tempting to submit to the abuse rather than confront it.

Neither the police nor the legal system offered protection. It was me versus him. Facing the Hacker alone was terrifying, turning my fear into paranoia. I became anxious even walking home at night, realizing those around me couldn’t understand the agony of online abuse by someone controlling your digital life. Once your information is shared, it’s no longer yours. Even now, as I write, I wonder if the Hacker might return.”

– Patricia Franquesa, Director

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