As the Crow Flies follows a group of the top young Royal Canadian Air Cadets as they undergo seven weeks at an elite flight-training camp to get their pilot’s license, which normally takes six to eight months. Casting an especially affectionate eye on her female subjects, filmmaker Tess Girard—herself a graduate of the program—creates a unique and intimate portrait of an extraordinary, yet also very recognizable, group of 17-year-olds as they come of age.