My Side of the Mountain is a 1969 Panavision and Technicolor film adaptation of the 1959 novel of the same name, by Jean Craighead George.

He decides to leave Toronto to spend time alone in the Canadian woods to see if he can make it as a self-sufficient spirit after his parents' promised summer trip doesn't pan out.

He gathers supplies at a local store, hops on a bus, and heads down the 401 with Gus to what he calls "the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec".

Here he finds the perfect mountain stream and pond location to build a home in an old dead tree.

He begins his long-planned algae experiments and proves his ability as a solitary young Thoreau living off the land and communing fully with nature.

Sam wants badly not to have to feel needful of the urban and modern world, however, the sight of a falcon overhead inspires his curiosity about falconry.

He journeys back to Knowlton and to the local library, where the librarian and bird-enthusiast Miss Turner (Tudi Wiggins) supplies him with books on falconry.

[4] Bikel said in his autobiography, Theo, "What was unusual about this production (My Side of the Mountain) was that they asked me not only to sing and play, but to write the songs as well.