Carolynn Towbin is a woman of many ventures in life.
She’s a meditation teacher, life coach, motorcar dealer and honorary chair of the Coronado Island Film Festival, which runs Nov. 8-12.
Towbin over a Zoom interview sits in her chair in her Las Vegas office where she’s run Towbin Automotive for the last 35 years with her late husband, Danny, who passed away about 15 years ago.
Her high energy and bright smile fill the screen as she talks about Coronado and her little slice of heaven.
‘Best of both worlds’
Based mainly in Las Vegas, she manages to escape the brown desert ecosystem that she also loves, to her home in Coronado for the beaches and greenery at least once a month.
This gave her “the best of both worlds” and is how she started attending the Coronado Island Film Festival.
Now in her early 70s, as the honorary chair, Towbin says she does what she can to promote CIFF.
“To hear that my favorite place in the world is going to have a film festival, I was so excited. So, I’ve been going since the first year, and every year we’ve gotten better,” Towbin says of the multi-day event launched in 2016.
Deep interest in film, theater
Towbin has always had a deep interest in film and theater which she says stems from her mother, and she says being able to just watch great movies all day and be in such an iconic town is among her favorite things.
She was a fashion model working in New York in her earlier years and was surrounded by the film industry, which also led to her love of movies.
“It’s a world-class event…and we are the most well-attended film festival in San Diego,” Towbin says. “Coronado is easy. It’s such an accessible town, you can catch everything…I actually don’t drive for the festival.”
And this year, she’s excited to catch Tyler Perry’s film “Maxine’s Baby,” “Past Lives” with Greta Lee and “The Nana Project” from director Robin Givens, just to name a few.
Mentors young women
In her life coaching, she says she gravitates towards mentoring young women and imparting her years of experience and wisdom to them.
“What can I do to channel what I know?” Towbin says, as she thinks about what is her purpose in this stage of life right now.
“It’s so empowering being more involved, and we have more directors and writers that are women now. So, between being a sponsor and a donor and empowering our women in leadership that’s happening…it’s amazing,” Towbin says.
