In creating the film, The Death Waltz, Croft employed an innovative research methodology that was constructed around an experiment in filmic constraints. The project investigates what occurs when the use of a camera is handed over to a film’s actors; the film was shot not by a professional cinematographer but by the film’s own cast of 12 actors, using a Super 8mm film camera which was passed from one actor to the next. Using this filming method, the film’s cast acquired a more complex position of authorship with respect to the final outcome of the film.
Croft’s unique approach to documenting an apocryphal speech in a circular format using a nomadic camera position poses the question of how the transitory nature of the art gallery environment can aid in creating an affective response to a story that has neither beginning nor end. As a dinner party scene revolving around a Scottish man’s monologue describing a military ghost story, The Death Waltz pays homage to generic screen languages from classical cinema. Croft references genres such as the murder mystery, British ‘Hammer Horror’ films and the iconoclastic work of Luis Buñuel, with the intention of colliding their consistently linear structures with a disrupted cinematic image. This effect is produced through the camera’s constantly changing viewpoint, and with the continuous looping of the man’s story.
The work toured extensively and was screened internationally at institutions including The Royal Academy of Arts, London (2008), Galleria Civica di Modena, Modena (2008), The Block, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane (2008), 798 Beijing Biennale (2009), Malta Contemporary Art, Malta (2009), Fred [London] Ltd., London (2010–11), Base-Alpha Gallery, Antwerp (2011) and Galerie Baer, Dresden (2013 - 14).