All language subtitles for Solving the Ajita Wilson Mystery… - Film historian Alex Mendibil on co-star Ajita Wilson.eng

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