In this paper we share insights from four participatory video workshops held in Cambodia as part of a three-year project on domestic violence and legal reform under the ESRC/DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research scheme. The participatory politics that emerged from the workshops organised in partnership with a Cambodian gender-oriented non-governmental organisation (NGO) and an independent translator/co-facilitator forms the crux of our discussion. We define ‘participatory politics of partnership’ as the multi-layered power relations between community groups, gatekeepers and researchers whose respective agency is mediated by the political economy the research emerges from, and takes place within. Highlighting discrepancies between ‘gold standard’ participatory ideals and practice, we argue through three vignettes that greater acknowledgement is needed of intermediaries whose statuses and behaviours, like those of researchers, heavily mediate community engagement in participatory action research.