Capital Motion Picture Group has picked up Teach Grant-directed Down Here and Challat de Tunis, coproduced by Toronto-based Six Island, as the distributor ramps up its acquisition activity.

Both films will be released theatrically by Capital Motion Picture Group in 2015. Challet de Tunis is a mockumentary that looks at the Blade of Tunis, an urban legend that gained popularity before the Arab Spring. Down Here, meanwhile, is a police-themed social drama that looks at Vancouver’s Downtown East Side and stars Dean Wray, Tantoo Cardinal and Martin Cummins.

Both of these films, in addition to the documentary Citizen Marc which Capital Motion released last fall, fit into the distributor’s larger strategy of releasing Canadian-driven films for the domestic market, said managing director Michael Dobbin.

“There is a really interesting gap in the market,” Dobbin told Playback Daily. “A lot of the films that are out there now are slipping through the cracks. It does provide an opportunity to pick up some titles that are getting overlooked by distributors who are more focused on output deals with U.S. studios.” The distributor also hopes Canadian talents who go with Capital Motion in their early days come back to the company to release future films as their profile grows.

“For us, we recognize that Canadian films have thinner margins but we do feel there is a market and by attaching to that market and growing in that market early, we’re hoping that we will also grow with Canadian talent,” Dobbin said.