Debra Goldblatt-Sadowski founded rock-it promotions in the year 2000, when fax machines were still an office staple; when newspapers were thick with advertising and reigned supreme. There were no smartphones or hashtags. AI was reserved for science fiction. It was a different time.
I’ll never forget the day I met Debra, affectionately known in the industry as Deb G. It was 2003, and I was a 24-year-old intern at Alliance Films. For three months, I had been quietly cutting newspaper clippings in a vacant corner office at Bloor and Church, and was informed that someone would soon be joining me in the space, a publicist hired especially for TIFF. I was intrigued.
Alliance had a dozen or so films in the fest that year, I can remember three: 21 Grams (because I helped Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro navigate Yorkville), Les Triplettes de Belleville (because it was so deliciously wacky), and Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions (because it opened the fest and was the talk of the town… 20+ years later, Arcand remains a master filmmaker). It was an impressive roster, Alliance needed to bring in the city’s top publicists to manage the chaotic red carpets and bustling press junkets. Deb was only 29 at the time, but she was already a well-known name in the biz, a person on speed dial for when the going gets tough.
The morning she arrived, before she even walked through the threshold of the office, she stood at the doorway, surveyed the room and said: “I’ll need a different phone. I can’t use that, I need a headset.” Wow. I thought. This woman just straight-up asks for what she wants. She had my attention.
That summer, I watched her carefully. Learned from her. Laughed with her. We both witnessed a woman jump to her death from the roof of a condominium across the street. It was shocking, heartbreaking, and the shared trauma brought us closer together. It was a summer of many vivid memories—good and bad.
What I loved most about Deb was how she treated people: she’d show a door bouncer the same respect as a bigwig Hollywood producer. Of course, this is how things should be, always, but not many in the industry share those morals and manners (especially in the early 2000s).
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During TIFF, our bonds grew tighter. We ran through the Intercontinental Hotel, riding the elevator with Philip Seymour Hoffman (RIP), tripping over Sofia Coppola’s room service trays. Actually, I was probably the only one doing the running and tripping, as I was constantly racing, trying to find my footing in this new world as the intern girl who got the famous people’s coffee. Deb, on the other hand, was calm, cool, and collected. I ran; she walked. I panicked; she problem-solved.
After the fest, we parted ways. I wondered if I would still remain in Deb’s orbit. I badly wanted to be in her company. When I received an invite to her 30th birthday, late that autumn, I was delighted. It would be taking place at Lobby Restaurant on Bloor, which had become the “it” spot, thanks to Deb, who had signed them as a client, helping their Kobe Beef Burger gain overnight celebrity status. It was a memorable night of tube tops and table dancing. I met all three Podemski sisters (Jen, Tamara, and Sarah). They were childhood best friends of Deb’s, so it made sense that Jen, who has become one of Canada’s most celebrated directors and producers (Little Bird, Moccasin Flats), was her first client.
“Before I knew what my career would look like exactly, I tried my hand at various things. One of them was helping my best friend Jennifer Podemski get featured in some magazines and on some TV segments. Little did I know that it could be an actual job,” Deb shares with a laugh. Not long after working with Jen, she received a call from Sarah Polley, who hired Deb to manage the PR for her first short film. Things began to take off.
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Within a few months, Deb called and asked if I’d work for her. I jumped at the opportunity. At that point, my internship at Alliance was over and I was working for a company called Mad Scientist, teaching children how to build homemade hovercrafts, something I was really not trained to do, and was really quite terrible at. I was happy to make the move, and idolized Deb.
In the early years, rock-it operated out of Deb’s apartment on Montclair Avenue. We’d take turns at her desk (laptops weren’t common back then), managing client requests and working on different press releases, including The Drake Hotel, which was a construction zone at the time, but we could both see how it was about to shake up Toronto. The entire city was on the cusp of a seismic arts and cultural awakening.
Realizing that PR wasn’t for me, I left rock-it minutes before it bounced from a small operation to a major player, taking over a beautiful sundrenched office space on Richmond Street. Over the years, I’d watch Deb scoop up the hottest clients: Toronto Fashion Week, The Junos, L’Oreal Paris, Soho House, to name a few. While she’s always been discreet about her dealings with famous people (the best in the business always are), she has worked with everyone from Mariah Carey to Helen Mirren to Oprah Winfrey.
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In 2005, Deb started to notice a shift in the way things were done. “I looked at what trends were happening in the U.S. Festivals and came up with a concept I thought would work,” says Deb, explaining the birth of Tastemakers Lounge, the first Canadian gifting lounge at TIFF, that had a successful run for over a decade. “The concept was that the Canadian star system always needed more support and I was proud to give Canadian talent something where they felt recognized and appreciated.”
Deb was similarly ahead of the curve in 2014 when she launched Fourth Floor Management, a management company for influencers that serviced a noticeable gap in the Canadian market. The company was sold to Shine PR in 2020. It was one of the rare exciting and hopeful local industry news stories to come out of that horrible year.
Over the years, Deb and I crossed paths at parties, usually hers (or where the rock-it team was handling the guest list). In 2017, when I wanted to throw a blowout bash to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Shedoesthecity, I didn’t think twice before calling Deb. The event took place at the (then) Knix headquarters on Claremont Street (rock-it would soon become their agency on record, managing PR through their 320M USD acquisition by Essity), and spanned three days. It included 9 separate events within those three days: a women in film panel discussion (in the weeks after the #MeToo moment broke), an erotic writing workshop, a feminist stand–up comedy night, a pilates class, recovering-out loud talk + sharing circle, and more. It was three years before COVID, and everything felt possible; there was a sense of freedom and play and excitement that has been missing for a while.
Andréa Grau, founder and owner of Touchwood PR, and her team, were also at that party. While Deb was growing rock-it, Andréa was likewise growing Touchwood, with a roster of clients that included Netflix, Cineplex, Serendipity Films, and Focus Features. At that moment, in 2017, we were all women in the industry, supporting one another, cheering each other on, creating our own universes in a media and entertainment world controlled by men. While we could not have predicted the future then, everything that has happened since makes sense.
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In 2021, Touchwood acquired Shedoesthecity; in January of 2025, they announced the acquisition of rock-it promotions. “I’ve known Andréa since the beginning,” says Deb. “We always had a ton of respect for each other and often shared a laugh. I love the way she conducts business, how our clients are such a complementary addition to her roster and I think she is just a stellar human being.”
Andréa shared similar sentiments: “Acquiring rock-it promotions marks an exciting new chapter for Touchwood PR. Deb and I have had a personal and professional friendship over the span of our 25+ year careers, and our deep trust and respect for one another makes this decision easy.”
I have tremendous respect for both of them, and while this piece may read as a gushy love-in (it kind of is), respect and women supporting women are important themes to highlight, especially as we move through an era dictated by profit hoarding and greed. Business can be done differently: mutual respect and compassion provide fertile ground for growth.
“We’ve always respected one another and our history in this industry runs deep, but our journey together is new, and everything about the future is exciting to me,” says Deb. I’m sure I speak for many when I say: I can’t wait to see what happens next. The story continues.
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