In the next few weeks, movie rental places may experience a small spike in the number of requests from Blue Hill-area customers for the 1971 blaxploitation film “Shaft.” Most of the requests will come from residents over the age of 65.

The combination of place, age and topic may seem unlikely, but not when it comes to the persistent curiosity of participants in Colloquy Downeast, an engaging and fun grass-roots discussion series spearheaded by retirees on the Blue Hill Peninsula. A seminar taking place this month is devoted entirely to the life and work of the late Gordon Parks, who directed “Shaft” and was a photographer, composer, pianist, poet and author. The movie is not on the seminar’s list of recommended sources, but after a lively first session, participants wanted to see Parks’ landmark film. They were willing to do so on their own time.

Colloquy Downeast, which takes place from the fall through the spring in locations from Surry to Deer Isle, offers discussions on wide-ranging subjects including polymaths such as Parks, as well as issues, figures and movements in science, government, medicine, religion, business, education and the arts. Group leaders, most of whom retired to Maine from professional positions elsewhere in the country, are given two missions: to know something about their subject and to inspire discussion among participants. Facilitators need not be scholars. And participants need only be curious. They don’t even have to be retired. In fact, while adults pay $50 per seminar, high school students are admitted for free.

“From the start we said this would not be a senior college – underline that,” said Katrina Parson, who helped create the organization six years ago out of a yearning to exchange ideas with others. “This is for all ages. Even when it comes to facilitators. They may have been professors in a former life, but they can’t be that here. We wanted people who would adhere to the idea not of lecturing or taking ego trips but facilitating open discussions where all participants are equals. The best facilitators pose questions.”

Participants and organizers alike agree that Mike Blair is one of the best facilitators. A lifetime student of art and former high school English teacher, Blair has designed several colloquies on the visual arts, including the one on Parks. In keeping with the organization’s directives, he opened the inaugural Parks session last Monday at Parker Ridge Residential Community by asking a dozen participants: “What would you most like to know about Gordon Parks?”

Each person, none of whom were residents at the retirement village, offered a comment. Silence and shyness were not a problem, even for those unaccustomed to speaking up. Some simply introduced themselves. Others were more vocal. “I’m an innocent when it comes to art and poetry,” admitted one woman. “I’m interested in the relationships Parks had with three women,” said one of two men in the group. Another woman squinted her eyes and said: “I want to know what made him tick.” The other man in the group revealed this: “I saw Gordon Parks’ article about Harlem gangs when I was 11, and since then I’ve followed his career.”

Blair nodded welcomingly to each person, and then asked the group to look at a photograph in “Eyes with Winged Thoughts,” a book of images and poems by Parks. Again, participants offered opinions, insights and impressions. Blair continued asking questions – and answered a few along the way, too. “Do we know what Parks intended?” asked one woman, referring to a photo of a crucifix that could be about hope but might also be about sacrifice, oppression or the Ku Klux Klan. “No, we never do. Even if Gordon Parks said what the photo means, we still may not know,” said Blair, modeling good art criticism.

When a photojournalist visiting the class revealed he had met Parks years ago, the group wanted to know more. They stopped their own conversation to query him: What had he learned from the master?

“Perseverance,” the photographer said. The group was riveted. “There were a lot of doors closed to him as a black man when he was getting into photography. It helped me put my own work into perspective – the doors I have open to me as a white person.” Unwittingly, he had become part of the group’s intrepid and inclusive approach to information.

The impromptu moment was what Blair later called “following the enthusiasm,” or allowing the group to pursue a thought as it arises in the moment.

Blair also said that being a facilitator – he has been a colloquy participant, too – gives him a chance to share information that interests him. While he taps into his teaching skills from the past, he doesn’t accept the terms “class,” “teacher,” “course” or “student” to describe his current position.

“I see my job as making the discussion as friendly as possible,” said Blair, who is 64 and lives in Blue Hill.

As steering committee members, he and Parson face the challenging task of marketing the organization as something other than a time-filler for older people of leisure. Yet often, that’s the description of the attendees.

But not always. Some high-school students have taken advantage of the free admission, and one seminar on business attracted a younger career-age crowd. But largely, full-time workers may struggle to fit yet another activity into an already busy professional or family life. The steering committee has tried to address this by offering some seminars in the evening. But the majority of participants are still retirees.

“We definitely have a niche,” said Parson. “We might as well accept that.”

“But we want it to be a resource for the community at large,” said Blair. He also emphasized the intellectually ranging nature of the meetings. “One of the things we most fear as an organization is that we’ll be tagged elitist. We are not at all. We want everyone to come.”

After attending the first Parks session – and her first colloquy, Carol Hyams went home and told her husband she felt as if her brain had been “stretched.” The couple moved from Santa Barbara to Surry six years ago, excited about a “retirement” that would include hiking, backpacking and trips to eastern cities.

“We were hoping there would be classes, too,” said Hyams, who is 63. But neither of them was thrilled about driving as many as 50 miles in winter to attend the senior college at the University of Maine or lectures at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor. They may still do that, but Hyams is happy for something stimulating closer to home when the snow flies. “It makes us less isolated,” the retired family therapist said. “It’s very important to have conversations and be in touch with an intellectual exercise and listen and be challenged to think of things in a different way.”

For those who may be intimidated the academic sound of the word “colloquy” – from the Latin for “conversation” – participants say the meetings are far less formal than school.

For others, the TV may be the obstacle to venturing beyond home.

But leaders say the payoff of a community discussion – unlike TV – is that gray matter is sparked. Live discussions also have the potential to form friendships, develop interests and increase quality of life.

“When it comes to adults, it’s not my place to tell them what they should be thinking about, but it worries me that some apparently don’t want intellectual activity in that kick-back time after work,” said Blair, who is nevertheless sympathetic to the pressures of contemporary life. “Of course, with technology, people are inundated with information.”

“But with colloquy,” said Parson, “it’s not just taking it in. We have to focus. We have to take some active part rather than sitting back and watching TV.”

Getting together with others interested in meaningful exchange is an alternative, Blair explained, to the cocktail circuit, where encounters can consist mostly of small talk. “In this context, you’re free to expand and talk in something other than a brief conversation,” he said.

For regular colloquy attendees, Suzanne and Don Carmichael, retired attorneys, such conversations usually begin at their home in Deer Isle.

“Don and I do the reading over lunch, and then discuss the issues and have our own two-person pre-colloquy,” said Suzanne. “We read a lot by ourselves and talk about things, so we were very leery about the program initially. But we fell in love with it because it draws together people from Deer Isle and the Blue Hill Peninsula, and they have such intriguing backgrounds. They bring so much to the discussion. It’s a nice match: people who are curious, who want to broaden their horizons. You don’t have to be an expert. That’s one thing that makes it outstanding – the ease with which you can participate. It is totally comfortable. There’s nothing you can say that is stupid.”

The facilitator’s job is to assure such acceptance of ideas, say members of the steering committee, who carefully vet potential session leaders. In the beginning, the founders turned to their “brightest and most creative friends,” said Parson. But the list of discussion leaders, who receive a $100 honorarium, has grown, and there is room for more.

Although the resumes may be formidable – physicians, architects, publishers, veterinarians, surgeons, historians, artists, educators and lawyers – the colloquy is not about professional status or accomplishment. In these forums, credentials have more to do with a desire to share and to understand.

“Part of my chore as a senior faculty member at a law school was to evaluate teaching quality,” said Don Carmichael. “I’ve encountered a couple facilitators here who are the best I’ve ever seen in action. If they offered a course in building a garage roof, I’d sign up for it.”

If someone made a persuasive argument for a seminar on garage-roof building – or more likely, the philosophy of garage-roof building – it’s hard to say if Colloquy Downeast organizers would pass it up. In the meantime, seminars have been on topics such as Ulysses S. Grant, Admiral Lord Nelson, foreign policy, performance practice and health care.

In addition to Blair’s Gordon Parks seminar this month, John Roberts, a professor emeritus of orthopedic surgery at Boston University, is guiding a discussion on the cultural and economic history of coastal Maine. (It meets Wednesday afternoons at Blue Hill Library.) A final round of offerings this spring will focus on understanding the contemporary media, the history of the American health-care system and how pet owners can get the best from their veterinarians.

“You’re only as remote as your mind,” said Don Carmichael. “And our minds aren’t retired.”

For information about Colloquy Downeast, visit www.colloquydowneast.org.