Original subtitles

It is difficult to review the life and filmography of Ajita Wilson,

because she is a character surrounded by mystery, false information,

legends, rumors, and also by her involvement in the 1980's porn industry

where it was very frowned upon,

and many half—truths and falsehoods were told.

It is only in the last few years that research has begun

into verifying certain data

which is what we are going to try to do here

Checking out the stories to see how many stand up against the facts

For example, we know from a registry in Italy

that her date of birth is November 16, 1943 in the USA.

Although other sources give dates such as 1950

and give a different place of birth

But in this Italian record she appears under the name of Ajita Victoria Wilson

Although it has been said many times

that her original name was George Wilson,

there is no evidence for that at the moment

Likewise, there has been much talk about how she got started

and how she got into the industry.

We know that it was in the mid-705 when she made her transition to female

But it is also said that she started working in a cabaret New York

and even that she made clandestine porn films at this time

or that she was a fireman in Chicago,

All this unverified information we prefer to keep in the rumor section.

What seems more certain is that in New York she began

to study Psychology and worked in a boutique as a sales assistant.

Hello, professor

Hi Ajita, thanks for coming

Let me see

You get more beautiful every day.

And you're always so kind, professor

Later, she herself commented that she had been discovered

by the famous fashion photographer Bill King,

who worked for leading publications such as Vogue and EIIe,

both in the United States and Europe,

and that it was he who brought her to Milan for a photo shoot

and that's when she settled in Italy.

But there is again no record of this fact

What we do know for sure is that in 1975

a modeling agency in Milan had photos of her in their catalog

and that was how Cesare Canevari, the Italian director

found her when looking for a leading lady for his film The Naked Princess.

He went to this agency looking for a black woman actress

He saw some photos of her

and quickly hired her, despite her having, according to Canevari,

no previous film experience

And yet he gave her the leading role in the film.

It's a film inspired by the story of a minister

in the government of dictator Idi Amin of Uganda, a real character

And in the film, Ajita, within her role,

has the opportunity to show many different registers,

ranging from the typical erotic—exotic one we are used to,

to dramatic and even comedy registers

So it's a fairly ambitious and complex role

that Ajita plays very effectively and that does make one wonder

how far an actress like her might have gone

if other directors had treated her as Canevari did

Unfortunately, most of the directors who worked with her

did not see all those aspects in Ajita

and stayed more or less with the stereotype

of a statuesque and exotic body and little else.

The Naked Princess is also curious because it is a film

in which there are already constants that will haunt Ajita

throughout her career

such as the scandal around the film itself

During the filming in 1975, the film was controversial

because a minister working for the dictator Idi Amin

tried to stop production of the movie

arguing that the film insulted his foreign minister

that it would defame her image and things like that

All this was quite worrying for Canevari

but he finally decided to go ahead and finish the shooting

The film can also be interpreted today,

if we see it as a kind of metaphor

for what is going to happen to Ajita Wilson herself

in Italy and in the other countries

where she worked throughout her career,

because it tells the story of an exotic and mysterious woman

who tries to settle in Italy and work,

and receives rejection from the patriarchy

and from the macho men who misinterpret her sexual freedom

and misinterpret her lifestyle

and force her to do things she doesn't want to do

or even attack her violently, as happens in the film

That is, in a way, a rather unfortunate omen

of what she is going to experience throughout her brief career as Ajita,

especially in Italy

The film, The Naked Princess, is quite successful,

it is sold to many countries,

and it's a film which led many Italian directors of the time

to take notice of this actress

and then start hiring her for a variety of roles

And thanks to him I have transformed

into a completely happy human being.

It seems like a miracle, doesn't it?

No, nature has given Eve something extra.

She has both female and male organs

but was neither a true male nor a true female.

From then on, we can distinguish two types of film

for those who hire Ajita Wilson.

One would be films that want to take advantage of her image

a bit like Laura Gemser in the Black Emanuelle films,

playing this journalist or hostess character in other films,

who serves as a kind of nexus, a link between different sketches

or different adventures or anecdotes of erotic type,

close to the "Mondo" style of films

They are films like Black Deep Throat,

or films like the second part of the Porno Nights of the World

in which Ajita Wilson plays a bit of this role

of being a researcher or stewardess

that gives rise to different scenes of an erotic or sexual nature

I have been studying the principles and mechanisms for many years

I believe I have finally perfected a weapon that will save mankind.

No more wars, no more violence, no more brutality, only love.

You are a genius, a benefactor of humanity.

In the second Porno Nights of the World film,

directed by Joe D'Amato, there's an interesting scene

There's a moment where Ajita Wilson does a striptease

next tO some statues

that could be like a version of the dance that Soledad Miranda does

in Vampiros Lesbos by Jess Franco.

It's a fairly similar scene.

And this leads to an anecdote that will be repeated throughout her career

when Joe D'Amato tells how, in this same scene,

the actor who played one of the statues

did not know about Ajita's past

and when D'Amato explains to him that she had previously been a man,

the actor looks as if can no longer work with her,

and the planned hardcore scenes can no longer be filmed

It's a theme that would be repeated many times throughout her career

and gives us an idea of how trans people were treated at that time

I don't get it, he doesn't answer...

He never goes out. Maybe he didn't hear it

Something must have happened, we'd better go back

OK

This information provided by Joe D'Amato also suggests that

at that time, in the mid-705,

Ajita Wilson's flirtations with porn may have already started

Although it must be said that they are not officially pornographic films,

but rather that they are filmed, as Joe D'Amato said,

perhaps with some inserts for different markets

sometimes without the knowledge of the films' cast and crew

Ajita seems to have participated in some of these porn inserts

It's a case that is repeated in another film from this period,

Libidine

It's an erotic film, but quite interesting,

because it mixes science fiction and horror,

with a doctor who researches snakes

And here it happens again that the leading actress,

finds out that pornographic scenes have been filmed

without her consent, including in scenes she starred in

There is a moment where the protagonist is in bed with a snake,

and that's a soft scene

But later porn inserts were filmed and the actress starring in it protested

So all this gives us a little idea of this world

of those first attempts at pornographic films

that were not officially porn, which maybe were only sold in certain markets

and that the majority of the team thought they were making an erotic film,

which was then allowed in many of the countries in the mid-seventies.

Genghis Khan, would you like to be there with them?

With Libidine there is also a curious fact,

which is the meeting of Ajita Wilson

with the Swedish porn actress Marina Frajese

who she had also met in Porno Night of the World

They would go on to be great friends

and would appear together in a multitude of films

The scene in Libidine, the two of them with a banana,

is quite strange and quite unforgettable.

- There's no one here — Listen to that

But what on earth is it?

There he is!

It's Genghis Khan!

Relax, Genghis, we'll set you free

Around this time, Ajita Wilson starts to become

quite popular on private television too.

This is the period when, on Italy's private television channels,

the nightly schedule starts to include programmes with a slightly adult flavor

and Ajita starts to appear in some of these programs

doing a striptease

and there is also talk of an advert she did for a coffee company

So we can understand that she is a character who in Italy

is gradually becoming increasingly popular

even outside the world of cinema, also on television

It is a tiny object that will revolutionize the world

It can transform man into superman and woman into superwoman

Sexually speaking

It's fantastic, the greatest invention of all time

It must be kept totally secret

The other film model that occurs in Italy

in this early period of Ajita Wilson's career,

is one that we could say imitates the American Blacksploitation films

It's not as common as the Emanuelle films

of which there are many more,

but this Blacksploitation genre we find, for example, in a film made in Greece,

called Black Aphrodite, Afrodite negra

where Ajita Wilson is presented a bit like one of the American stars

like Pam Grier,

or like Tamara Dobson, or Cleopatra Jones

They play the characters of superwomen involved in action plots

or espionage

And they are visually displayed in front of the camera,

in the same way, as great icons and superwomen

That's what happens in Black Aphrodite

and we see, especially at the end, some incredible shots of Ajita Wilson

armed with a shotgun, and filmed like something shot by Russ Meyer

They must have used a skeleton key

What a disaster

I'd say they used a knife. Or a hairpin.

What did they take?

- Everything on Eva's case - N0

Yes, formulae with reactions...

Everything on the operations, the plans of the sexmaker...

This is terrible

At this time also, a bit of espionage, well, it's a small role

but it should also be noted that she worked with Lucio Fulci

in the film Contraband

A small role, but visually also very important

Lucio Fulci gives the slender figure of Ajita Wilson

a very powerful presence, with the help of the lighting and the music

And she has a rather powerful scene,

where she shares the screen with the great Fabio Testi

Following which Ajita Wilson starts to take off and to be seen

as a fairly popular face, not only in Italy but overseas too

If he starts acting as stupidly as the other one, that's his problem.

We'll just give him a good beating as well.

That's nothing compared to what we'll do to this one

if he doesn't take us where we want.

Also during the 705 we can find a new chapter opening

in the filmography of Ajita Wilson

Women in Prison films

which are the sort of films she will do quite often throughout her career

And the first ones she does are with an Italian director,

Edoardo Mulargia,

who shoots Escape From Hell and Hotel Paradise

Two Edoardo Mulargia films shot “back to back"

that is, one after another, to save costs,

the Escape From Hell and Hotel Paradise.

And in these two films, Ajita Wilson plays practically the same role,

as a prisoner,

and they are typical films in the women in prison genre,

but with a kind of depressive and rather gloomy tone

Ajita doesn't shine as much here as, for example, in films like Black Aphrodite

which we mentioned earlier

Here, for example, with these two films,

something curious happens that also happened in other subsequent films

A deception by the production team

as to whether they were making one or two movies at a time

It seems Mulargia's films about women's prisons

had originally been intended as a single film,

and the team gradually discovered that it was two films,

and that they had only been paid for one

There's an anecdote from a Spanish production assistant,

because it was a Spanish co—production,

who found out that two films were being made

with the knowledge of the crew

To silence him the director offered him a night with Ajita Wilson

Well, this kind of rumor we'll put to one side

I mention it because it gives an idea of the way

in which trans people were treated at the time

and which, surely, Ajita would have had to endure very often

Beyond whether the anecdote is true or not true,

this kind of thing was what happened on such shoots then

You know, this friend of yours isn't bad looking

Don't let Ajita's words go to your head

Oh, come on!

I just came to bring you the office keys

The famous "Eva & Freddy“ detective agency

is now closed because its namesakes are absent

Where are you going, Freddy?

In this same women's prison genre, but quite a few years later,

almost a decade later,

and with the same producer as the Mulargia films,

Ajita Wilson would make another two films about women's prisons

It was a very different era, an era in which, as we shall see,

she suffered several scandals and had legal problems

and where almost no—one wanted to hire her anymore,

and this producer hires her to make these other two films

about women prisoners,

films which not even the most die-hard fans of the genre recommend

as they are very weak indeed

I have to go and do my number at the club

Hey, Ajita, would you mind going out on your own tonight?

As the 805 arrived, Ajita Wilson began to work in Spain

She arrived here through the producer José Luis Bermudez de Castro,

in a co—production with Italy, with a contract to make two films,

Eva Man and The Return of Eva Man, again shot back to back

We know that there are actors who were not aware

that there were two movies, at least at the beginning,

and found out during shooting that they were making two films

The interesting thing about this one

is the meeting of Ajita Wilson with Eva Robin's,

or Eva Coatti as she appears in the credits

The protagonist of Eva Man

would go on to have a great friendship with Ajita Wilson

who she remembered fondly for long afterwards

and spoke highly of how Ajita Wilson treated her

Ajita Wilson was older

If we go by the date we gave originally, more than 10 years older,

and apparently she took Eva Robin's under her wing

and helped and supported her in what was a difficult first role for her

We understand that this friendship lasted

and that they shared many intimacies together

This experience with Eva Robbins, also tells us

something about the differences that existed in the teams concerning

their view of Ajita

We find opinions, usually, from actresses,

her colleagues, who speak very highly of her and who

emphasize what a good colleague she was,

that she was always willing to help, that she was very calm,

even reserved

The opinions generally of the men on the technical team

tell a very different story

They say that, yes, on set she was very professional

and very disciplined,

but that, outside of filming,

they portray her as a very crazy character, a party lover

and always wanting to impress people

with stories about sex, stories about her transition,

or rumors about whether they had met Fellini, Ugo Tognazzi,

or if Grace Jones had stolen her 007 part in A View to a Kill

From what we can understand

of this difference between the versions,

it's something that is quite common in trans people,

who are forced to lead a double life and, sometimes, to behave differently

in front of people who treat them differently

So they develop a defence mechanism,

inventing stories about themselves,

or trying to shock others with stories

matching the expectations others have of them.

We can assume that many of these stories or legends,

perhaps they were generated by Ajita herself

but I would understand this, as a self-defence mechanism.

We're being followed.

Why would they follow us?

We'd better ask them

Maybe it's the thieves

Through the producer and screenwriter José Luis Bermudez de Castro,

Ajita Wilson also collaborated on the 1979 film The Energetic Ones,

directed by Mariano Ozores,

a film very well known in Spain, because,

apart from being directed by Ozores, it starred Péjares and Exceso,

a comic duo very popular in Spain

and who in this film were the quintessential of the Spanish male,

redneck and quite clumsy.

Ajita, in Los energéticos, plays a minor comic role

with these two actors

and we find again the typical anecdote

that both Ozores and Pajares tell in their memoirs,

that Ozores knew Ajita was trans and didn't tell Pajares

and Pajares, when he finds out he has to kiss her on the mouth in one scene,

refuses to shoot the scene

These kinds of stories, if they are true,

all they do is show once again the kind of treatment

that a person like her suffered at the time

The men who'd tied up Cristina?

Surely, he couldn't have been looking through the keyhole

It doesn't quite make sense.

I guess Martino saw them as they were leaving.

And then they made a fast getaway

Also, without leaving Spain, Ajita had a small role

in a 1982 co—production with Greece, which is called The Ambitious Lover,

which is a vehicle for the promotion and stardom of Maria José Cantudo,

a hugely popular actress in Spain, both in cinema and on stage

She also appeared a lot on television, and in magazines

The film is a vehicle for showing her almost as a kind of folk diva

with some musical numbers

Ajita Wilson has a small role

But Maria José Cantudo has good memories of her

and she wanted to send us an audio recording

of what she remembers about her

Hi, I 'm Maria José Cantudo,

and I worked with Ajita on a film that I made in Greece,

She played a friend of my character

So, we had some scenes together

She was lovely because I told her I liked the shade of lipstick she had

She was very dark-haired and so it looked very pretty

and she said that if I wanted, she would give it to me as a present

and I told her that she didn't have to do that

And a while later she came and said we were going to buy one

and it made me excited because the truth is I loved it

and so we went to look for it in Greece and so on

and we didn't find the lipstick with that color

We went one day with the director to one of these clubs where

they throw plates and dance and stuff

and she was by my side and not with the other cast

She didn't make many friends, to be honest.

Whenever anything happened, she would come to me,

I can say that she was lovely with me,

during the time we were together, which wasn't long

I don 't remember whether she left me the lipstick or I just took it,

but she didn't have any problems with me

I think the other cast members were quite distant.

She was quite distant, yes, but I can't say the same about myself.

Well, that's all I can say about this actress

who I personally liked a lot.

Got a problem?

Well, no sweat, here I am!

— So you're a mechanic then? - No, I'm not a mechanic

I'm a gentleman

Wherever there are women with problems,

I come to the rescue

Just like manna from heaven

As fast and forceful as a telegram or a football victory,

as punctual as a lifeguard of the road

That's why I'm placing my lifeboat at your disposal

Make the most of it

We don't take rides from strangers

- Now, don't make me angry. - Mind your hands.

We continue in the Spanish stage of Ajita Wilson's career

who, being here in Spain, could not avoid working

with the director par excellence of Spanish exploitation and erotic cinema,

Jess Franco

And, indeed, Ajita Wilson made two films with Jess Franco,

with a year between them

The first would be Sadomania, shot in late 1980,

and Macumba Sexual a year later, around the end of 1981.

Sadomania is a slightly bigger budgeted production for Jess Franco

It was a co-production with Germany

They tried to create a kind of "Ilsa" type of character

as in the Ilsa saga, featuring Dyanne Thorne

Jess Franco makes very good use of Ajita's figure and presence

to achieve this

So she is no longer a prisoner as in previous films about women's prisons,

but rather she is now the warden of the prison

A sadistic and violent warden with a spectacular figure

Always dressed in black, in shots that emphasize her slenderness and height,

and she manages,

although she appears very little in the film,

because her part was probably shot in a few days,

she creates a character who reminds us a little of the presence of

Ajita in her first films

like The Nude Princess or in Black Aphrodite.

Her role is really impressive on the screen

In Sadomania, there's an anecdote told by Jess Franco

that's very different from the other filming anecdotes we've heard so far

Jess Franco plays a character in the movie,

one of his most legendary characters,

a kind of wretched guardian who buys slaves,

and then, according to Jess Franco, there is a scene,

which is barely visible because it is filmed through a glass,

where a black man is sodomizing the character played by Franco

Franco says he did that scene with Ajita Wilson

who was wearing a huge moustache

Watching the scene it could well be Ajita Wilson

The director of photography doesn't remember it clearly

and says doesn't know if it's part of Franco's imagination

But whatever the truth, this indicates the good relationship

between Jess Franco and Ajita Wilson,

who got on very well

and who worked together again in Macumba Sexual a year later

Macumba Sexual is a much smaller film,

shot in the Canary Islands and where Ajita shines as the main protagonist

and she steals the limelight from all the scenes in which she appears.

Here, curiously, she also plays the role of a princess,

as in her debut in the world of cinema.

Here she is Princess Tara Obongo,

and it's a kind of version of the myth of Dracula

or of Franco's film Vampiros Lesbos

but adapted to the island of Gran Canaria,

to desert landscapes of dunes and to Franco's characteristic iconography

In Macumba Sexual, Franco gives us absolutely iconic shots of Ajita Wilson,

such as, for example, the scene in which she walks with two slaves

chained like dogs as she crosses the dunes

or the impressive duos with Lina Romay,

who plays the other main character in the film

and when Lina Romay and Ajita Wilson get together

sparks fly on screen and you can see the great deal of complicity

that existed between them

Lina Romay is another actress who speaks highly of her work with Ajita

and remembers her as someone who was always willing to help,

even in low—budget productions

That she was very generous, very disciplined,

super professional and with whom she had a great rapport,

even in very strong scenes, like the ones we are used to from Jess Franco

Franco also said that at that time they had thought

of making a third film with Ajita Wilson,

Pick Up Girls (1982), which also tells the story of a trans character

But, finally, we don't know if due to issues with the dates

or for whatever reason, the character was played by Rosa Valenti

Also from this period, in 1982, is the film Sexual Apocalypse by Carlos Aured,

where Agita reprises her partnership with Lina Romay,

in a film made in the heyday of Spain's "S" rated cinema

Films that are always hovering between soft and hardcore,

and in fact a version was filmed with porn scenes too,

but Lina Romay and Ajita, in this film again show

the complicity that exists between the two of them

and they are constantly stretching on screen the limits

of what could be shown and what could not be shown at that time

Proof of this is the final scene with Ajita Wilson and the knife,

which is a really difficult scene to watch, even today

The director Carlos Aured had fond memories

of both Ajita Wilson and Lina Romay,

saying that not only did they have no qualms in front of the camera

but that they did much more than was asked of them

They dared to go much further, unlike other actresses of the time,

who were more cut out for it than they were,

who had no problem with that

And he also remembers the great responsibility they had for their work

That both were studying their lines of dialogue

and that they gave their all in the many scenes,

as I say, complicated, that are in this film

Hey, tell me, you too?

What about me too?

Are you a hermaphrodite too?

Why?

What if I were?

It wouldn't bother me at all

And don't look so stupid.

There's nothing wrong with it

But unfortunately, I only have one thing.

Which one?

Will you risk it?

I'II risk it.

Before leaving Spain, Ajita Wilson would shoot

two films produced by Balcézar,

which is a long established Catalan company

making all type of B—movie since the 19505

She made two very different films

Catherine Chérie, co—produced with Germany once again,

and directed by Hubert Frank, which is a very elegant film,

showing a kind of classy eroticism with a lot of style,

with great locations, with a much much more relaxed style than

what is customary in the filmography of Ajita

It's a film that looks luxurious, with good photography and direction

and exceptional care in every sense

And one could say that it is surely one of the best films

in Ajita Wilson's filmography in that sense

It's a thriller that mixes drama with a story of cocaine trafficking

but as I say, it's a film that falls within the realm of that erotic cinema

set in high society locations that was being made at the time

Whereas the other Balcazar production My Nights with Messalina,

is the complete opposite,

very low budget, very eccentric, very fourth wall,

and full of humor a very bawdy humor

Ajita Wilson barely appears in the soft version of the film

Where we find her most is in the porn version,

where she does several scenes with the same actor,

who also appeared, by the way, in Catherine Cherie

Excuse me, can I make a call?

My wife is about to give birth

Are you sure?

Of course

It is also worth mentioning Pussycat Syndrome,

a Greek film starring Ajita Wilson

where we see a completely spectacular actress

exuding joy and good vibes

It's a story of two actresses, two advertising models,

on vacation in Greece, and, as I said,

It's a very colorful and quite surprising film

both in terms of production and the role played by Ajita,

because of how friendly and cheerful she seems

At the end of 1982, Agita Wilson's career took a major turn for the worse

She had several problems with the law

and scandals that ruined the career that had been so far been growing

In the Italian press of the time, they connect her to a brothel

with a very bizarre story

in which she seems to have run half-naked down the street

with the police chasing her

Well, a story that, as I say, appears in the press,

but which is quite strange and bizarre

We don't know to what extent it may be true or not.

What is certain is that, at this moment,

the press and Ajita begin a rather strong confrontation,

the press reveals for the first time that she is a trans woman,

At which point she gets very angry, and attacks all Italians

saying she hates Rome, and accuses Italy and Italian men,

blaming them for all her problems

So, from this moment on, let's say that in some way

this relationship is broken between Italian cinema and Ajita Wilson

She ends up taking refuge in Greece, where she was always welcome,

and where she makes a series of pornographic films

and returns to Italy with a couple of projects

One that interested her a lot and in which she was very involved

was a small singing career,

such as Eva Robin's also had at the time,

where she performed with a group of dancers in Italian discotheques

and there are advertisements from the mid-805

for a production called The Ajita Wilson Show

And the other project would be the last film she makes,

a pornographic film titled White Mouth, Black Mouth

in which she once again works with Marina Frajese

and with the actor Gabriel Pontello

This would be her last film,

although there were later some other films

or re—edits of films

But the last shoot is this film

in which we see an Ajita already rather listless

and with little real interest in the role she is playing

Barely a year after the premiere of White Mouth, Black Mouth

in May '87,

news appears in the Italian press that Ajita Wilson has died,

in principle, it says, as the result of a stroke,

while she was at home with her partner

and that the medical services could do nothing for her.

Then there would be speculation as before,

Rumours that she had an illness

or that there had been a previous traffic accident,

but these remain unconfirmed

At the express request of Ajita Wilson,

her body was cremated and the ashes shipped to the United States,

and that is the last that we know about this actress

Well, as we have seen, among so many rumors,

false information and legends,

the character of Ajita is a controversial one

But perhaps we can draw the conclusion that she was

an actress who was not best served by the system of the time,

by the values that existed then

Because of the little information there was on how to treat transgender people

For a whole host of reasons, they didn't let her express herself properly

as she would have liked

She was a victim of the situation and the times

And a little, as we were saying at the beginning, she suffered in reality

some of what happened to the character she played in The Nude Princess

who can't find her place in a society

that was not yet ready for a character as free and daring as Ajita Wilson was

Maybe it would be better to abandon everything

and leave here as soon as possible

You know that's impossible