Born From Water
A Documentary Series
We are born from water. Yet we have forgotten.
The oceans are dying. The aquifers are draining. The people who know how to listen are still here.
A cinema-grade documentary series and living platform following indigenous water keepers, freedivers, scientists, and environmental practitioners across continents.
Born from Water exists to inspire and educate humanity through the stories of those who learn with water and give back to water, so that life on Earth can continue.
We learn how to embody the qualities of water.
- Born from water
We learn how to embody the qualities of water.
- Born from water
Why people come
People arrive outwardly successful. Capable. Intelligent.
Yet inside something feels off.
Always doing, rarely resting
Living in the mind most of the time
Effort and pushing, without flow
Control instead of trust
Fearful thoughts, scarcity mindset
Repeating old patterns
Disconnection from the body
Intuition pushed aside
Purpose unclear
What's next?
Your place is ready. To confirm your seat, complete your payment below.
We will then welcome you into the Water Portal , and send you details to begin.
Only 12 leaders will walk this elemental journey together.
We’re honored to walk with you.
Why Now
We've forgotten how to listen to water.
Water systems globally are collapsing. Aquifer depletion, oceanic dead zones, climate instability, and the quiet erasure of indigenous knowledge systems that understood water stewardship for millennia. The crisis is not only environmental - it's cultural. We treat water as a resource to extract.
Water is life
Water is the origin of all life on Earth. Humans are born in water, yet many live without relationship to it. Distance has grown between people and water, and between people and each other. The world currently is in tension, shaped by fear, control, and disconnection. Water holds ancient intelligence. Flow. Trust. Connection. Presence. This is what is being remembered.
The communities in this series treat it as a living system to understand.
"What do the people who've listened to water for thousands of years know that the rest of us have forgotten?"
Water brings us back into flow.
- Born from water
The Series
Nine episodes. Nine dimensions of water.
Each episode is a self-contained cinematic portrait built around one dimension of water.
The camera stays close. The pace breathes. Water speaks first - macro lens, slow movement, the sound echoing through cathedral-like spaces - before the human stories emerge as extensions of that same current. This has never been done: all the different voices and dimensions of water, brought together in one series.
Origins
Marine science. The birth of life. Stromatolites.
Guardians
Indigenous water keepers. Sacred traditions.
Immersion
Freediving. The ocean as teacher.
Expression
Water dance. Artistic dialogue with the element.
Transformation
How to be like water. Embodiment. What water teaches.
Science
Research. Filtration. What the lab confirms.
Restoration
Kelp forests. Coral. Ocean regeneration.
Encounters
Marine animals. Ecosystems as kin.
Silence
Presence. What water says when we stop talking.
Maha Kumbgh Mela’ by director Massimiliano Bulgheroni
What we create
Documentary Series
9 episodes for festival + streaming
Podcast
15+ episodes with the voices of water featured in documentary series
Wisdom School
Immersive learning with water teachers.
Living Archive
Open-access platform for water traditions
Learning Programs
Water literacy for communities, companies, and schools
The Pilot
Episode 1: Origin
The pilot begins where the vision emerged: the lagoon of Bacalar, where 3.5 billion year old stromatolites sit in water that streams up from cenotes below. The reason Earth has oxygen. The reason we have life.
Mexico - May 2026
Bacalar + Chiapas
Stromatolites and the origin of life. Cenotes fed by underground rivers. Marine biologists studying ancient rocks. Water dance and freediving in the lagoon of seven colours. Abuela Lourdes, lightning survivor, indigenous water keeper who brings water’s message from the mountains of Chiapas to the world.
Portugal - June 2026
Nazaré
A rarely told, deeply human journey with the force of water, where men and women meet Nazaré’s giant waves and transform fear into trust and courage. An experience beyond adrenaline and competition, revealing a profound connection with the ocean. Featuring João Macedo and a close-knit community of big wave surfers. Through the Hope Zones Foundation, his work supports kelp forest regeneration, with the Atlantic as a second skin.
Leadership Water Immersion - Bacalar, Mexico
Selected dates between April 29 - May 23
A carefully held immersion bringing together leaders, high-performers, and entrepreneurs for a direct experience with water - freediving, water therapy, ceremony, and nature.
This is where Born From Water is lived. A space for transformation, connection, and deep reset - and for some, a way to become part of the story.
Participation in selected immersions may become part of the filmed journey.
Cinematic Context
Proven territory, untold story
Born From Water sits at the intersection of these proven formats - but asks the question none of them asked: what happens when you let the water lead?
The Deepest Breath
Netflix, 2023
Freediving. Audience awards.
Mainstream crossover.
Tribe
BBC
Indigenous immersion. International festival circuit. Theatrical.
My Octopus Teacher
Netflix, 2020
Human-ocean bond.
Oscar winner. 24M+ households.
How It Started
A vision received from the water.
While freediving in Bacalar, Mexico, Moniek spent time in silence at a water altar in the lagoon. In that stillness she experienced the creation of the first living cell in the primordial ocean. A message from the water: humanity must learn with water and give back to water, so life can continue.
That moment became the origin of Born from Water.
From Bacalar, the journey has followed water across cultures and ecosystems: meeting scientists who study its molecular behaviour, indigenous grandmothers who channel its message, freediving choreographers who speak its language through movement, coral farmers rebuilding what industry destroyed, dowsers who feel it three hundred metres underground.
She brought the vision to Massimiliano Bulgheroni - a documentary filmmaker who had just completed a feature following spiritual seekers across India. The partnership was immediate. Cinema-grade production meets deep subject access. The documentary is the vehicle to reach people through stories. The platform is where the learning continues.
The documentary is the entry door. The platform is the living thing.
The Team
Cinematic experience meets global water network
Massimiliano Bulgheroni
Director / Producer
Documentary filmmaker with over fifteen years tracing spiritual and ecological traditions across five continents - from the Kumbh Mela to the Nile Delta to indigenous communities holding ancient knowledge. His work has been commissioned by the BBC and Channel 4, bringing an art-cinema visual language to documentary form: intimate, unhurried, built around presence rather than exposition. Born From Water is the convergence of everything he has followed.
Moniek van Erven
Executive Producer / Creator / Narrative Lead
Founder of Born From Water. Mentor, entrepreneur, freediver, water dancer, water therapist, and ceremonialist in service of the water. She’s been working for a decade with executives, entrepreneurs, and high-performers on personal transformation. Founder of Oyasin, Wisdom School, United Voice, retreats, and a global network of water practitioners. She carries the vision, and leads the conversations featured in the documentary and podcast.
Meet the founders
Timeline
May–June 2026
Pilot filming in Mexico and Portugal
July 2026 onward
Production of the full documentary series
2026 - 2027
Development into a feature documentary
Join the Founding Circle
Founding Circle
A select group of early believers who actively bring Born From Water into the world through their network, presence, and involvement in the series. The Founding Circle is formed through personal invitation.
Impact
Stories become education. Audiences become stewards.
For audiences
expanded awareness of water as a living system.
For communities
visibility for water guardians, scientists, artists, and activists whose work protects water ecosystems
For education
Stories from the series become learning material for the Wisdom School and water literacy programmes.
For the planet
A culture of stewardship and care for oceans, rivers, and watersheds.
‘Awakening New Earth’ by director Massimiliano Bulgheroni
The Invitation
Bring the Pilot to Life
Filming begins mid-May 2026
This first pilot defines the visual language, creative direction, and proof of concept for the series.
It is the moment Born From Water becomes real.
Once completed, it unlocks festival submissions, institutional funding, and global distribution.
The pilot is made possible through a small circle of supporters contributing a total of €30k.
You can support at different levels.
We are so incredibly grateful for your support. Thank you.
Pilot Supporter
€2,500
Help bring the first episode into the world.
Acknowledgement as a Pilot Supporter. Early private screening of the pilot. Ongoing updates from the filmmaking journey.
Executive Supporter
€5,000
Step into the inner circle of the project.
Acknowledgement as an Executive Supporter. Name listed in the pilot credits. Early private screening. Invitation to a private preview conversation with the filmmakers.
Founding Patron
€10,000
Play a key role in bringing Born From Water to life.
Acknowledgement as a Founding Patron. Name listed in the pilot credits. Early private screening. Invitation to join the Founding Circle with ongoing access to the project as it evolves.
Flexible Support
Choose your amount
Every contribution brings this story into the world.
We are born from water. This is where we remember.
For larger contributions, tax-deductible options are available via our non-profit partner organisations in the UK, USA, Portugal, and Switzerland.
Introducing the Elemental Wheel
The Elemental Wheel cycles through four elements: Water → Fire → Earth → Air. You start with one element, fully engage, then move on once you embody its wisdom.
All four elements are needed to lead fully. Now is the time to gather.
Water is not a resource.
She is a relative. A consciousness. A home.
— Mo, founder Born From Water
Meet Your Guides
Moniek van Erven (Founder of Born From Water)
Ocean Lover · Ceremonialist · Freediver · Water therapist · Spiritual Mentor
Mo guides you and walks beside you. From a place of deep listening, lived experience, and her devotion to Water as teacher and healer. She’s hosting retreats and ceremonies across the globe. Her guidance is intuitive, grounded, and rooted in love.
Mo’s path began over two decades ago in meditation and six years ago with sacred medicine work, and it was Water that truly transformed her. Through oceans, cenotes, and tears, water softened her armor, healed her nervous system, and returned her to feeling.
She founded Oyasin, a global sanctuary for healing, guiding retreats and ceremonies across the world for leaders to help them to return to the body, the earth, the heart.
Her guidance is intuitive and loving, rooted in lived experience and years of walking with Indigenous elders, sacred medicines, and the water itself. She doesn’t teach from a method, she listens, feels, and lets the water lead.
Water is her teacher.
And so, she guides like water.
Indigenous Wisdom Keepers
You’ll sit in ceremony with elders and medicine carriers from Nahuatl, Quechua, K’iche’ and other lineages. They don’t just teach, they transmit. Their presence awakens our memory through ancestral ritual and prayer.
Guest Teachers & Elemental Guides
Our extended circle includes freedivers, breathworkers, ocean protectors, water therapists, ritualists, plant medicine guides, emotional release practitioners, vocalists, artists, dreamworkers, and embodiment practitioners.
Step into the portal
Your 4-Month Journey
You can choose to pay monthly , over 4, 8, or 12 months, whatever supports your current rhythm.
All options include full access to the program for 4 months. Payment plans simply offer more time to complete your tuition.
Standard Plan
€450 / month
4 months
Extended Plan
€225 / month
8 months
Gentle Plan
€150 / month
12 months
Sponsor
Support someone to become a Water Guardian.
MENTORSHIP
Receive 3 private ceremonies with Mo.
Foundation
Support ocean protection projects worldwide.
Gift a Loved One (monthly)
2 elemental journeys: €500/month (Total: €2,000)
4 elemental journeys: €500/month (Total: €4,000)
Gift a Loved One (upfront)
2 elemental journeys: €1800 (save €200)
4 elemental journeys: €3,500 (save €500)
Pay It Forward (monthly)
2 elemental journeys: €600/month (Total: €24,000)
€500 covers your participation; €100 contributes to a fund supporting those in financial need.
4 elemental journeys: €600/month (Total: €4,800)
€500 covers your participation; €100 contributes to a fund supporting those in financial need.
Pay It Forward (upfront)
2 elemental journeys: €2000 (save €400)
€1800 covers your participation; €200 contributes to a fund supporting those in financial need.
4 elemental journeys: €4,000 (save €800)
€3,500 covers your participation; €500 contributes to a fund supporting those in financial need.
If the above options still feel inaccessible, you’re welcome to request a supported spot. Email us at [email protected], we’d love to explore ways to support you in joining. Like water, we find ways to flow.
Invite a Friend
Receive a private 1-on-1 ceremony with Mo for your personal referral, as a heart-felt thank you for for expanding our tribe
