Filmmaker Linda Hattendorf took an interest, and began to engage with him to create a documentary of his life.

When Hattendorf "found" Mirikitani, in his usual spot along the wall of a Korean market, near the intersection of MacDougal and Prince Street in Soho, she offered him shelter in her small apartment.

During this period a beautiful and curious friendship flowered, as Ms. Hattendorf began the long process of re-integrating Mr. Mirikitani into society, recovering, among other documents, his social security card and passport.

Ultimately, she reunited him with his distant cousin, poet Janice Mirikitani,[5][circular reference] and his surviving sister, and helped him find his own apartment in an assisted living facility.

When his employer died, Mirikitani became homeless, spending almost a decade in Washington Square Park.