When Linda Hattendorf met Jimmy he was living under the awning of a grocery in Lower Manhattan in New York. She begins to engage and film him for a possible documentary.
He is a "grand master artist" born in Sacramento, California. He grew up in Hiroshima, went to art school and came back to America only to be interred in Tule Lake interment camp after Pearl Harbor. His citizenship was taken away by the US government and he ended up homeless in the 80s in New York.
The film's amazing twist happens on 9/11 when, after the towers collapsed, Washington Square is deserted, but Linda finds Mirikitani in his usual spot, covered in dust and coughing in the toxic cloud. She invites him in to her (tiny) apartment and we begin to get to know him. I think this film is about the meaning of "home" and all the ways we can lose and find it.
We watch as, over the next few years, he paints in her apartment, hangs out with her cat, sings and waters plants. She helps him get his SSI benefits and finds him senior housing. Through her research and help, he visits Tule Lake, is reunited with his sister, who he hasn't seen in 60 years, and he teaches art classes at the senior home where he lives. The sweetest moments of the film are about the two of them.
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