Luciana and Mario want to dance into old age at home and avoid aged care

Dancing in their kitchen together, gardening and doing volunteer work are all things that Luciana and Mario Martini love being able to do while still living in their home in North Fitzroy.

The couple, who have been married for 59 years and had their first date at the Fairfield Boathouse, are determined to keep living at home rather than an aged care facility as they get older.

“We want to live life to the full, and we want to live it where we’ve got our own experiences, good times and bad times, where we overcome the difficulties in life and where we have so many memories,” Luciana says. “We still dance – we may do less dances, but we are still doing it. We still do volunteer work; we might take longer, but we are still doing it.”

Luciana, 79, and Mario, 86, star in the documentary Careless, which explores people’s fight to age on their own terms. It is screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Those featured are all determined to continue living independently, with many wary of aged care after stories of neglect and mistreatment emerged during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Going into a nursing home for myself and my husband, it’s like waiting for death to come,” Luciana says.

Documentary maker Sue Thomson set out to make a film about the implications of Australia privatising its aged care system, but as she started filming a new story emerged.

“As I was making it, it became more also about all the people I met, who happened to be mainly women, saying, ‘No, I want to stay home’, knowing full well that these people are not going to be able to stay home, or probably shouldn’t be staying home,” she says.

Thomson also drew on her experiences with her father, who was in aged care, and her mother, Margaret, 90, who is still living independently.

Margaret is facing increasing challenges remaining in her home as her mobility decreases and she battles health issues.

“Old age is nothing to be pleased about in my opinion,” Margaret says in the documentary. “I hate the weekend because everyone is out having fun, fun, fun, and I am not.”

Thomson and her mother must decide whether there is enough support for her to continue living at home or whether she would be better off moving into an aged care facility.

“Ageing is a part of a life,” Thomson says. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we lived in a country that supported us, no matter what our socio-economic standard status is, whatever we’ve been or done in this world, that we felt like we could live the end of our lives in an independent, if that’s what we choose, but comfortable, safe way.”

Despite the desire of many older people to stay at home, accessing in-home care is becoming increasingly difficult as many councils and community groups pull out of the sector.

The documentary is narrated by schoolchildren, and Thomson says she wants to start a debate about aged care from a young age.

“How great if we can get younger people discussing ageing in a positive and powerful way, and to be outraged at some of the things that are happening,” she says.

Aged care advocates such as Sarah Holland-Batt, who appeared at the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety after her father was abused in aged care, also add their voices.

“Eventually, I realised it wasn’t just bad luck, it was the system,” Holland-Batt says in the documentary. “That’s one thing we get wrong in Australia – our aged care homes are pretty much segregated from the rest of the community.”

However, Holland-Batt says staying at home is not necessarily a solution.

“The problems in home care are lesser known because they are not monitored,” she says.

Luciana Martini says she is happy that Careless “gives a voice to seniors”, which is a rarity at an age when she often feels invisible in society.

“It shows that we are alive,” she says. “We might be seniors, but there’s youth in us. Even if we are of a certain age, we want to live in our own home, in our own dreams.”

Careless screens at MIFF. Details: miff.com.au

The Age is a festival media partner.

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